04-14-1986 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Additional expenditures include (amounts not accurately known because items are within larger budgets): - Suburban Hennepin Regional Park Distract islands, toilet and trash cleanup, other picnic facility maintenance. - Communities --access (boat launch and shoreline) toilet and trash cleanup are assumed, no specific data has been received on this topic. - Minnesota DNR--information and education, especially about boating safety plus cooperative enforcement -related activities with Hennepin County Sheriff's water patrol. finding Funding for enforcement and maintenance on Lake Minnetonka is not adequate to meet the present need. Funds for research, planning, administration and education/awareness are so inadequate that they are limiting needed activity. Recommendation Funding sources should be found and adequate allocations made to support the agencies carrying out needed activities on the lake. The following alternatives are recommended: 1. An increase in the boating safety fund and an increase in grants from that fund made by the state to operating agencies. There are two possible sources from which the fund may be increased. The first possibility is that the Minnesota Legisla'vre can increase the allocation made to the boat safety account from existing sources. Second, added revenues can come to the fund from increased boat license fees in Minnesota. An increase in boat fund revenues should be followed by an increase in grants to the active agencies. The increase should be above the current base operating allocations and should be distributed by a supplementary formula that recognizes and encourages local effort. 2. LMCD and other authorized agencies should maximize revenues from permit fees, marina fees and other development and commercial use fees. The task force recognizes that such fees are normally able to cover the cost of services at best, thus are not likely to constitute a significant source of revenue for new activities. 3. Some MCTFLM members continue to urge consideration for a special license fee for all boats using Lake Minnetonka. The advantages of such a program lie in its equity and its direct tie to users. Task force members recognized the difficulty of such an approach, which lies in the perception of many decision -makers statewide who fear that a special sticker for any one lake will open the floodgates to demands for a sticker for every major lake in the state. Clearly, this alternative requires major legislation changing the way license revenues are raised. 4. The LMCD tax levy should be outside the lakeshore communities' 'cry 1 mits and should be levied directly.